Page 119 of Cursed Bonds: An Alpha's Destiny

“Easier for us all to get away without questions if we do it early,” I said.

“Jace,” Reese said, stepping forward to shake my hand.

“Morning, Reese. Are you ready for this?”

“I hope so,” he said. “It’s an honor, honestly.”

“Where’s the body?” Abigail asked. “Let’s let the boy doctor here do his thing.”

Reese’s cheeks went slightly pink, and he nodded. “Waylan filled us in on what happened yesterday.”

Langston snorted. “Whole town knows what happened. That damn Kyro couldn’t stop running his mouth about how amazing Kirsten was for healing him. Dude’s got a schoolboy crush from the sounds of it now.”

“This way,” Waylan said, leading us off the path deeper into the woods.

We walked in silence for a few yards before Abi tilted her head, sniffing the air. “What the hell?”

“Yup,” I said dryly. “That’s why I wanted you all here. You’ll see in a second.”

A few more steps brought us to the small ditch where we’d put the body. The wolf, eyes now milky, lay in a tangled pile of limbs.

“It smells… sick,” Abi said.

“Yeah.” Langston winced. “It’s not the decomp. That’s bad, but there’s something else underlying that. Like it’s feral. Like its insides are rotted or something.”

“That’s what we thought,” I said, then nodded to Reese. “It’s part of why I agreed to have you join us here. I wanted someone with the know-how to take a look.”

Reese knelt next to the body and prodded the wounds. “He didn’t shift back to his human form upon death. That alone makes me think you’re right that he’s feral.”

“I’d noticed as well,” I said. Almost all shifters transformed into their human form upon death. It was nearly unheard of for it not to happen.

Reese pulled open the eyelids, revealing more of the milky eyeball beneath. He slid a small penlight from his pocket and shone it into the eye. After a few more inspections, Reese stood and looked at us.

“He’s lost his humanity. You were right. He’s feral.”

The rest of us shared a confused look. My eyes bounced from Waylan to Abigail to Langston, who looked the most confused.

“How’s that possible?” Langston asked.

Going feral was an incredibly rare thing for wolves to succumb to. In all my years, I’d never met one. As rare as it was, all shifters still feared it, like the boogeyman under the bed.

“Only two ways it can happen,” Reese said. “Obviously, one is staying in your wolf form for too long without shifting back. Usually longer than forty-eight hours. That’s the low end—some shifters could stay in that form for up to a week before their mind and humanity break down. The other”—he gave us a meaningful look—“is through magic. A curse.”

“Well, that can’t be it,” Abi said. “Kirsten is the only witch around. Hell, I don’t think there’s another real witch in the state. We all know how rare they are.”

I began to nod along with her reasoning, then froze. My mind reeled. An idea, and an awful one at that, had sprung to my mind.

“Fuck,” I muttered, and turned my eyes to Waylan. “I need to talk to Kirsten. Now.”

Before any of them could ask me why, I’d shifted and was sprinting back to my house. Abigail’s words echoed through my head over and over. I don’t think there’s another real witch in the state.

Except that wasn’t true. A very real witch lived in St. Louis. The witch who’d guided and mentored Kirsten when she learned about her powers. Tinsley. What if Eren knew her, too?

The last thing I wanted was to scare Kirsten, so when I neared the house, I shifted back into my human form and schooled my face into a calm expression as I stepped through the front door, anxiety and fear roiling in my stomach.

Kirsten was in the kitchen, fixing herself a bowl of cereal.

“Hey there,” I said. “Sleep well?”

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